What Do You Mean, "Last Days?"

 If I were to guess your beliefs, I would guess you probably believe that we are living in the last days, and that Jesus Christ will return to this earth sometime in the next few decades, if not within just a few years. I, too, am inclined to believe this, and most readers of this blog probably are as well.

For most of my life, I’ve heard that we are living in the last days, and that Jesus Christ’s return is imminent. Most of you probably have as well. This has been proclaimed for many decades, if not centuries.

And what about the apostles who lived and died around 2,000 years ago? Men like Peter, Paul, John, and others? Didn’t they also believe that Christ’s return was imminent, within their own lifetimes? It’s often asserted that they did, and those who say so can point to several Scriptures as support.

For example, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). And to the Philippians, he said, “Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5).

The anonymous author of Hebrews wrote: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1:1-2). Again, this same author spoke of the times in which he lived, some years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, as “the end of the ages” (Heb. 9:26).

James rebuked those who set their hearts on earthly riches, warning, “Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days” (Jam. 5:3). He further warned, “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!” (Jam. 5:9).

Peter, too, wrote that Jesus Christ “indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Pet. 1:20).

And these are just a few examples. There are others as well. So did the apostles really believe that Christ’s return would happen in their own lifetimes, the same as many generations of God’s people have since? Perhaps — but perhaps not.

Here’s something we need to keep in mind: the writings of Peter, Paul, James, and the other apostles were not the words of men, but the words of God. These men were messengers from God, the same as Moses and the prophets of old. Jesus Christ Himself told His apostles, “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me” (Luke 10:16). Paul told the Corinthians, “the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37). Peter reminded his audience to “be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (2 Pet. 3:2). And John wrote, “We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us” (1 John 4:6).

So let us not simply dismiss the apostles as mistaken when they wrote that Christ’s return was imminent or that they were living in the last days. Instead, when we read things like this that seem to be “wrong” or hard to understand, let us stop to consider what we’re being told, and compare it to the rest of God’s Word.

What if the apostles were right all along and we have simply misunderstood the message? What if we have imposed our own definitions onto phrases such as “the last days” or “the end of the ages,” and assumed their meaning without Scriptural support? What if Scripture defines these terms differently than we so often do?

Latter Days and Former Days

We often tend to think of the “last days” as the last few years or decades leading up to Christ’s return. This isn’t necessarily wrong — those are indeed part of the last days — but the Bible uses this term and similar ones much more broadly.

Throughout Scripture, from Genesis nearly to Revelation, we can find terms such as “last days” or “latter days,” which have the same meaning. When he was about to bless his sons in Genesis 49, Jacob told them, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days” (v. 1). He went on to prophesy magnificent wealth and power for many of his sons, especially Joseph, and foretold that the Messiah would arise out of Judah. We can see how Jacob’s prophecies have come to pass over many centuries, and yet he broadly described them as being for “the last days.”

In the Book of Daniel, we’re told that Daniel’s visions are for the latter days (Dan. 10:14) and “the time of the end” (Dan. 8:17; 11:35, 40). And when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the image with a head of gold, Daniel informed the king, “There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” (Dan. 2:28). He then told Nebuchadnezzar how his kingdom would be followed by others, and ended with a prophecy of Jesus Christ setting up His Kingdom over all the earth, “a kingdom which shall never be destroyed” (Dan. 2:44).

In these things, we could see grounds for considering at least the time from Jesus’ first coming to His second as “the last days.” But that’s not all. In fact, Scripture identifies events that happen after Christ’s return as also “the last days”!

In Mic. 4:1-4, paralleled by Isa. 2:2-4, God tells us,

1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.

2 Many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

4 But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.

It should be readily apparent that these events happen after Jesus Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom, as foretold by the prophet Daniel. Until that time, the earth will never know peace and tranquility, nor can it, for such is not man’s nature. So this is during Jesus Christ’s millennial reign on earth, and yet we are told that this is during the latter days, or the last days.

But there’s more. Remember, after Christ and His saints have reigned for a thousand years, Rev. 20:7-10 tells us that Gog and Magog will rebel and come up against Jerusalem, and that God will rain fire and brimstone upon them and destroy them. In Ezekiel 38, God described this very same event, telling Gog and Magog that they will come up against Him and against His people who will then be dwelling in peace and safety:

8 "After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.

16 "You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes." (Ezek. 38:8, 16.)

Notice that this event, which is after Christ’s thousand-year reign, is also said to be “in the latter days” or last days! So we can now begin to see that “the last days” cover hundreds or even thousands of years!

If we stop to think about it, this should only make sense. After all, if there are last days, or latter days, then there should also be former days, right? And how long might those be? Centuries? Millennia?

King Solomon admonished us, “Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For you do not inquire wisely concerning this” (Eccl. 7:10). What are the “former days”? Well, they could be any time period in earth’s history that one thinks was better. The “good old days,” as we call them now, however long ago those might have been and however long they might have lasted.

So in the grand scheme of Earth’s history, the first days and the last days alike can encompass many, many years. Centuries. Millennia. But to our Creator, they are just a few days. And that brings us to the next point.

A Thousand Years as One Day

From our perspective, a hundred years or even fifty years might seem like a long time. But Moses knew that our Creator has a different perspective: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night” (Psa. 90:4).

The apostle Peter warned that, because Christ’s return might seem delayed, many would doubt His promise: “Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Pet. 3:3-4).

And so Peter reminded his audience, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:8-9).

Let Us Labor to Enter His Rest

Now, it’s been nearly 2,000 years since Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. And if we follow the Biblical timeline back to Creation, we can see that Christ came to earth about 4,000 years after Creation. Some might say it was a little more than 4,000 years, and others might say it was a little less, but it was close to 4,000 years.

If a thousand years are like a single day to God, then Christ’s first coming happened around the end of four days, and nearly two days have passed since then. To use the analogy of a week, Jesus Christ came on the fourth day, and we are now on the sixth day, approaching the Sabbath. Once the fourth day of a week has passed, the week is more than half over. All three remaining days are “the last days” of that week.

Going back to Creation, God created mankind on the sixth day of the week. He also told us, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Ex. 20:9; Deut. 5:13). So God gave man six days, or 6,000 years, to labor and do all his works on this earth, but on the seventh day, man’s works will cease. On that day, Jesus Christ will return and set up His Kingdom, and there will be peace, righteousness, and justice throughout the earth.

Indeed, the Sabbath is a type of God’s Kingdom. In Col. 2:16-17, Paul wrote, “Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of sabbaths, which are a shadow of the coming things, and the body is of the Christ” (YLT). Far from abolishing the Sabbath and Holy Days, as many mistakenly believe, Paul taught that they still remain and “are a shadow of the coming things” — the Kingdom of God.

The Book of Hebrews draws this connection even more clearly, drawing parallels between the Sabbath, the Promised Land, and the Kingdom of God. It speaks of a rest that is still to come, one that we must fear falling short of: “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (Heb. 4:1). This future rest is then compared to the seventh day Sabbath (v. 4) and to the Promised Land (vv. 2-3, 7-8). Then we’re warned once again, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:11.)

The KJV renders the first clause of that last verse, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.” And that’s what our lives are all about: laboring to enter the Kingdom of God. Laboring to enter God’s rest.

These 6,000 or so years that God has given man are workdays for our Creator, too. As Jesus told the Jews, after being falsely accused of breaking the Sabbath, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17).

Now, there’s something interesting, and often overlooked, about the Sabbath at Creation. “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day” (Ex. 20:11). On each of those first six days, we’re told, “So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5), “So the evening and the morning were the second day” (Gen. 1:8), and so on. But on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there was no such statement!

Did the seventh day Sabbath at Creation have a beginning and an end? Of course, it was a physical day and it came and went. But after describing the beginning and end of each of the other six days, Genesis seemingly makes a point of not telling us that the Sabbath ended. Why?

I believe it’s yet another foreshadow of the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom will never end. As we’re told in the Book of Daniel, “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44).

Jesus Christ will reign on earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6); then Gog and Magog will rebel and be destroyed (Rev. 20:7-10); then the second resurrection and final judgment will happen, the unrepentant sinners will be destroyed, and death itself will be destroyed (Rev. 20:11-15). After this, there will be new heavens and a new earth, and God will dwell with His people forever (Rev. 21-22). But at no time during this chain of events does God’s Kingdom ever end. Jesus Christ simply reigns on earth until He has destroyed all enemies, and then delivers the Kingdom to His Father (1 Cor. 15:24-28).

Zech. 14:7, too, tells us that this day — the Sabbath day, God’s Kingdom — will never end: “It shall be one day which is known to the LORD — neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light.” And Rev. 21:25 and 22:5 likewise tell us, “There shall be no night there.” The Sabbath will never end; it is eternal.

God’s plan follows a similar pattern as the days of Creation. Man has 6,000 years — or six days, from God’s perspective — to labor and do all his works, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord. And the last three days, from Jesus Christ’s first coming until well into the Sabbath, are the last days.

So why did the apostles believe that they were living in the last days, and why did God inspire them to write that down for us? Simply because they were living in the last days, just as we are today! The last days cover thousands of years, from Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on into the Kingdom of God. And though we are closer to Christ’s return than they were, and though each day brings us closer to that glorious moment, it is still true that the apostles lived in the last days, the same as we.

“Behold, I Am Coming Quickly!”

The Scriptural definition of “the last days” seems simple enough, but there’s still more to the story. Remember, the apostles also wrote of Christ’s return as if it was imminent. The apostle Paul wrote that “the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20) and “the Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5). James wrote that “the Judge is standing at the door” (Jam. 5:9).

Jesus Christ’s own statements, recorded by John in the Book of Revelation, are even more striking. The book begins with this statement: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place” (Rev. 1:1). Near the end of the book, we’re told once again that the events of the book are “things which must shortly take place” (Rev. 22:6).

An additional three times, Jesus told John, “Behold, I am coming quickly” (Rev. 3:11; 22:7, 12). Once more He said, “Surely I am coming quickly” (Rev. 22:20). And He warned two of the seven churches that He was coming quickly and would punish them if they did not repent (Rev. 2:5, 16).

A number of people have stumbled over these statements and concluded that the events in Revelation must have already happened. Some even go so far as to say that Christ has already returned, the Millennium has already happened, and we are now living in the time when Satan is released to deceive Gog and Magog! They have fallen into the same error that Paul warned about: “Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:17-18). Paul described such things as “profane and idle babblings” (v. 16), but also warned that “their message will spread like cancer” (v. 17).

The absurdity of such claims ought to be obvious. Any literate person can read the history of this earth and see that there has never been a thousand years of peace and prosperity. Not ever! But it seems that some people, waiting for the Messiah’s return, simply lose patience and conclude either that it will not happen, as Peter warned about (2 Pet. 3:4), or that it has already happened, as Paul warned about.

As human beings who live only a few decades, our concept of “shortly” and God’s concept of “shortly” can sometimes be two entirely different things. Nevertheless, we ought to be heavenly minded rather than earthly minded (Col. 3:2), and spiritually minded rather than carnally minded (Rom. 8:6).

Is 2,000 years a short time? To God, yes. That’s just two days, and two days is a short time. Even from the perspective of earth’s history, it can seem like a short time. If God has given man 6,000 years on this earth, then a third of that is short by comparison.

Back in the Old Testament, about 700 years before Christ’s first coming, God told Isaiah that it would only be a little while: “Is it not yet a very little while till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 29:17-19).

Again, this was written more than 700 years before Christ’s first coming, let alone His second. It was more than 700 years before God poured out the Holy Spirit on His people, enabling the spiritually blind and deaf to see and hear. And yet God told Isaiah that this would happen in “a very little while.” To us, 700 years (or more) isn’t a very little while, but to God it is.

But there’s also something else to consider about the words “quickly” and “shortly” as used in the New Testament, and particularly in the Book of Revelation. “Shortly” is tachus in Greek (Strongs # G5036), which means “quickly, shortly, speedily.” It can indeed mean that something will happen soon, but it can also simply mean that the event, when it happens, will happen speedily. “Quickly,” or tachu in Greek (Strong’s # G5035), is closely related to tachus. It conveys the same meaning of speed or swiftness.

Isaiah 60 offers a great example of this concept. First, it vividly describes God’s Kingdom with statements such as this: “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory” (Isa. 60:19). And, even more tellingly, this one: “Also your people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land forever” (v. 21).

Right after these statements, God says, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time” (Isa. 60:22). These things are to happen in God’s own time, when He has decided. But when they happen, He will hasten them. They will happen quickly.

There’s another example in Hab. 2:3-4: “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.” Though the events of Habakkuk’s vision would seem delayed, they would happen at the time God appointed for them to happen. And when they happened, they would happen speedily and would not tarry; they would not be late.

That very same passage is quoted in Heb. 10:37-38 in reference to Christ’s return: “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” So we can see that, though Christ’s return might seem delayed, it is not. It will happen at the time God has appointed, and when it happens, it will happen speedily.

When we apply this to Revelation, it simply echoes the rest of Scripture. Jesus Christ will return speedily, but He will return on His Father’s timetable, at His appointed time, and not ours. Many people will think that He delays His coming, just as He foretold in Mat. 24:48, but He does not. And from God’s perspective, this is indeed not far off. A very little while.

What Does it Mean for Us?

So what does all this mean for us and for our understanding? And what does it mean for how we ought to live our lives?

Well, we are indeed living in the last days, but so were the apostles 2,000 years ago. Christ will return shortly, but that was also true 2,000 years ago. And yet we are indeed close to His return, closer than ever before. Whether that means He will return in the next few years, or in the next few decades, we do not yet know.

But for each and every one of us, the end is not far off, and that has always been true. Our lives are short, and when we die, our next waking moment will be in the presence of the Lord. As James, the Lord’s brother, reminded us, “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (Jam. 4:14).

Therefore, we need to make the most of the time God has given us on this earth, just as the apostle Paul instructed: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). And as King Solomon wrote about a thousand years before that (or, from God’s perspective, a day earlier), “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’” (Eccl. 12:1).

We must live each day with our eyes on the prize, drawing closer to our Creator and seeking the Kingdom of God more than anything in this life. Because, by any standard, God’s Kingdom is not far off!